JD Bock
I make founders removable from their own business.
I’m the founder of 9FOS. I’ve spent 20+ years building companies, with 2 exits and a bankruptcy along the way, and they taught me what most founders learn too late. Little by little, the whole business ends up running through one person, and I’m guessing that person is you.
This part’s personal. It’s my story and what I stand for.
Who Am I?
Selma, CA
I started out in Selma, California, a small town where most people didn’t dream very big. Pretty early on I knew an average life wasn’t for me, because I felt called to build something bigger.
Los Angeles
The first thing I chased was music. I moved to L.A., played in bands, and went after that dream hard, but being a starving artist gets old fast. So I made the first of a lot of pivots in my life and got serious about school.
College & banking
While I was in college for business, I got into banking and started studying successful people. That’s where I learned how much stability good systems create, and how most founders put them off until something breaks.
China
Then China happened. I’d been with the same woman for more than 3 years when her father got cancer. Her mom had to quit work to take care of him, and the family asked her to move to China to help run their factories. At the same time, my own career was boxed in. The only way up was if my boss moved on, or if I took a transfer with an hour commute each way. So I followed my heart, quit my job, sold everything, and moved to China with her.
I built an education company there from scratch, grew it, and sold it. Then I tried import/export and got punched in the mouth by 2008. The relationship didn’t work out in the end, but we’re still friends.
Shanghai
After that, I built and ran restaurants and bars in Shanghai, 5 concepts with more than 300 employees. It was late nights and fast cash, and the deeper I got, the more it drained me. It took a toll on my health and my relationships, and it was pulling me away from my values.
I’d been with my now-wife for years by then, and we were dreaming about starting a family. I knew that lifestyle and the family we wanted weren’t going to fit together. I wasn’t turning into the man I wanted to be, and I didn’t want my kids inheriting that kind of life. So I made the decision most people avoid, and I walked away.
I sold the businesses for a life-changing amount and left the nightlife behind. I wanted whatever came next to be built on stewardship and integrity, something my kids could actually be proud of.
That’s when I got certified as a PMP (Project Management Professional), and later as an ASM (Agile Scrum Master).
Back in the U.S.
I moved back to the U.S. with my daughter to get us settled while we waited on my wife’s year-end bonus. In some ways I’m lucky we left when we did, because we got out right before COVID shut everything down. My wife ended up stuck in China with no flights for over a year.
Back in the U.S., I led multi-6-figure construction projects, flipped houses, and built systems, and I kept asking myself 2 questions.
- How do I help people and make a huge positive impact in their lives, the way I feel called to?
- And how do I build a business that gives me freedom without running me into the ground?
What That Turned Into
Those questions were about my wife and daughter as much as me, and about the teams I lead, too. I wanted a life that works outside of a spreadsheet, and over time that search turned into my mission.
Because what’s the point of building a business if you can’t even take a walk with your daughter without checking Slack? Or if your “success” ends up costing you the very people you’re trying to provide for?
Money matters, don’t get me wrong. But the bigger win is a life and a company you’re actually proud of.
- Time for your family
- Energy to serve others
- A company that keeps growing when you unplug
Then I started working with a partner I met while I was earning an honorary doctorate. He’d just launched his coaching business after a big exit of his own, and over the next 2 years we worked with dozens of founders doing between $1M and $20M a year, helping them scale through systems.
Eventually I knew I wanted something more scalable, something that could help hundreds, even thousands of founders and take advantage of what AI can do now. So we parted ways on good terms, and I started building what came next.
I call it Founder Execution Engineering. I build the part of your business that turns decisions into results, so you’re not carrying all of it yourself, and the business can grow without taking everything you’ve got.
I believe leadership is stewardship, and your business should reflect what you value.
What I do now
I start with the people, then build the systems they’ll run.
If you’re still reading, I’ll assume a few things are true. You’ve got a company with a payroll to make and people counting on you, and you’re further along than most of the founders around you. And deep down, you know there’s another level. You’ve probably figured out by now that grinding harder won’t get you there. The next level comes from a business that keeps moving when things get chaotic, whether you’re in the middle of it or not.
That’s where I come in. Through 9FOS, the 9-Figure Operating System, I work with founders who are tired of carrying the whole business around in their head. They’re sharp, capable people. What they need is decisions that actually turn into finished work, with one clear owner on every piece, and a weekly rhythm the team sticks to even when the week blows up.
The method is Founder Execution Engineering, and the program is the Removability Build. We build your capacity first, then install one layer of structure at a time, until the business runs 4 weeks without you and still grows. And you won’t have to take my word for any of it, because you’ll watch it happen in the numbers.
Family matters to me, and so does stewardship. Over the long haul, the impact you leave behind matters a lot more than a P&L that looks good on paper. This work is for founders who are ready to stop reacting all day and start running their business on purpose.